Interpol
}} The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO-INTERPOL; ), more commonly known as INTERPOL, is an that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime control. Headquartered in , it was founded in 1923 as the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC); the name INTERPOL served as the agency's in 1946, and was chosen as its common name in 1956. INTERPOL provides investigative support, expertise, and training to law enforcement worldwide in battling three major areas of : , , and . Its broad mandate covers virtually every kind of crime, including , , and production, , , and . The agency also helps coordinate cooperation among the world's law enforcement institutions through criminal databases and communications networks. INTERPOL has an annual budget of around €113 million (US$127 million), most of which is provided through annual contributions by its membership of police forces in 181 countries. Its day-to-day operations are carried out by the General Secretariat, which is staffed by both police and civilians and led by the Secretary General, currently , the former deputy head of Germany's . As of 2013, the General Secretariat employed a staff of 756, representing 100 member countries. The General Assembly, composed of all member countries, is the governing body, electing the Executive Committee and its President—currently of —to supervise the implementation of INTERPOL's policies and administration. INTERPOL seeks to remain as as possible so as to fulfill its mandate; hence its bars the organization from undertaking interventions or activities of a political, military, religious, or racial nature or involving itself in disputes over such matters. History In the first part of the 20th century, several efforts were taken to formalize international police cooperation, but they initially failed. Among these efforts were the First International Criminal Police Congress in in 1914, and the International Police Conference in New York in 1922. The Monaco Congress failed because it was organized by legal experts and political officials, not by police professionals, while the New York Conference failed to attract international attention. In 1923, a new initiative was taken at the International Criminal Police Congress in , where the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC) was successfully founded as the direct forerunner of INTERPOL. Founding members included police officials from Austria, Germany, Belgium, Poland, China, Egypt, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, and . The United Kingdom joined in 1928. The United States did not join Interpol until 1938, although a US police officer unofficially attended the 1923 congress. Following in 1938, the organization fell under the control of , and the Commission's headquarters were eventually moved to in 1942. Most members withdrew their support during this period. From 1938 to 1945, the presidents of the ICPC included , , , and . All were generals in the , and Kaltenbrunner was the highest ranking SS officer executed after the . After the end of , the organization was in 1946 revived as the International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO) by officials from Belgium, France, and the UK. Its new headquarters were established in Paris, then from 1967 in , a suburb of Paris. They remained there until 1989, when they were moved to their present location in Lyon. Until the 1980s, INTERPOL did not intervene in the prosecution of in accordance with Article 3 of its , which prohibited intervention in "political" matters. In July 2010, former INTERPOL President was found guilty of corruption by the in Johannesburg for accepting bribes worth €156,000 ($192,831) from a drug trafficker. After being charged in January 2008, Selebi resigned as president of INTERPOL and was put on extended leave as National Police Commissioner of South Africa. He was temporarily replaced by , the National Commissioner of and former vice president for the American Zone, who remained acting president until the appointment of in October 2008. On 8 November 2012, the 81st General Assembly closed with the election of Deputy Central Director of the , , as the first female president of the organization. In November 2016, , a politician from the People's Republic of China, was elected president during the 85th Interpol General Assembly, and was to serve in this capacity until 2020. At the end of September 2018, Meng was reported missing during a trip to China, after being "taken away" for questioning by "discipline authorities". Chinese police later confirmed that Meng had been arrested on charges of bribery as part of a national anti-corruption campaign. On 7 October 2018, INTERPOL announced that Meng had resigned his post with immediate effect and that the Presidency would be temporarily occupied by INTERPOL Senior Vice-President (Asia) of South Korea. On 21 November 2018, INTERPOL's General Assembly elected Kim to fill the remainder of Meng's term, in a controversial election which saw accusations that the other candidate, Vice President of Russia, had used INTERPOL notices to target critics of the Russian government. Constitution The role of INTERPOL is defined by the general provisions of its constitution. Article 2 states that its role is: . # To establish and develop all institutions likely to contribute effectively to the prevention and suppression of ordinary law crimes.}} Article 3 states: Methodology (front)}} Contrary to frequent portrayals in popular culture, Interpol is not a enforcement agency and has no agents who are allowed to make arrests. Instead, it is an international organization that functions as a network of criminal law enforcement agencies from different countries. The organization thus functions as an administrative liaison among the law enforcement agencies of the member countries, providing communications and database assistance, assisted via the central headquarters in Lyon. Interpol's collaborative form of cooperation is useful when fighting international crime because language, cultural and bureaucratic differences can make it difficult for police officials from different nations to work together. For example, if US (FBI) track a terrorist to Italy, they may not know whom to contact in the , if the have jurisdiction over some aspect of the case, or who in the Italian government must be notified of the FBI's involvement. The FBI can contact the Interpol National Central Bureau in Italy, which would act as a liaison between the US and Italian law enforcement agencies. Interpol's databases at the Lyon headquarters can assist law enforcement in fighting international crime. While national agencies have their own extensive crime databases, the information rarely extends beyond one nation's borders. Interpol's databases can track criminals and crime trends around the world, specifically by means of authorized collections of fingerprints and face photos, lists of wanted persons, DNA samples, and travel documents. Interpol's lost and stolen travel document database alone contains more than 12 million records. Officials at the headquarters also analyze these data and release information on crime trends to the member countries. An encrypted Internet-based worldwide communications network allows Interpol agents and member countries to contact each other at any time. Known as I-24/7, the network offers constant access to Interpol's databases. While the National Central Bureaus are the primary access sites to the network, some member countries have expanded it to key areas such as airports and border access points. Member countries can also access each other's criminal databases via the I-24/7 system. Interpol issued 13,637 notices in 2013, of which 8,857 were s, compared to 4,596 in 2008 and 2,037 in 2003. , there are currently 52,880 valid notices in circulation. In the event of an international disaster, terrorist attack, or assassination, Interpol can send an Incident Response Team (IRT). IRTs can offer a range of expertise and database access to assist with victim identification, suspect identification, and the dissemination of information to other nations' law enforcement agencies. In addition, at the request of local authorities, they can act as a central command and logistics operation to coordinate other law enforcement agencies involved in a case. Such teams were deployed eight times in 2013. Interpol began issuing in 2009 with hopes that nations would remove visa requirements for individuals traveling for Interpol business, thereby improving response times. In September 2017, the organization voted to accept and the as members. Finances In 2013, Interpol's operating income was €78 million ($104 million), of which 68 percent was contributed by member countries, mostly in the form of statutory contributions (67 percent) and 26 percent came from externally funded projects, private foundations, and commercial enterprises. Financial income and reimbursements made up the other six percent of the total. With the goal of enhancing the collaboration between Interpol and the private sector to support Interpol's missions, the Interpol Foundation for a Safer World was created in 2013. Although legally independent of Interpol, the relationship between the two is close enough for Interpol's president to obtain in 2015 the departure of CEO from the foundation board after the allegations. From 2004 to 2010, Interpol's was the French . In November 2010, the Court of Audit was replaced by the for a three-year term with an option for a further three years. Criticism Despite its politically neutral stance, some have criticized the agency for its role in arrests that critics contend were politically motivated. In the year 2008, the office of the pointed to the problem of arrests of refugees on the request of Interpol in connection with politically motivated charges. In their declaration, adopted in Oslo (2010), Monaco (2012), Istanbul (2013), and Baku (2014), the (PACE) criticized some OSCE member States for their abuse of mechanisms of the international investigation and urged them to support the reform of Interpol in order to avoid politically motivated prosecution. The Istanbul Declaration of the OSCE cited specific cases of such prosecution, including those of the Russian activist Petr Silaev, financier , businessman Ilya Katsnelson, Belarusian politician , and Ukrainian politician Bohdan Danylyshyn. The resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe of 31 January 2014 criticizes the mechanisms of operation of the Commission for the Control of Interpol's files, in particular, non-adversarial procedures and unjust decisions. In 2014, PACE adopted a decision to thoroughly analyse the problem of the abuse of Interpol and to compile a special report on this matter. In May 2015, within the framework of the preparation of the report, the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights organized a hearing, during which both representatives of NGOs and Interpol had the opportunity to speak. Organizations, such as , , , , and , indicate that non-democratic states use Interpol in order to harass opposition politicians, journalists, human rights activists, and businessmen. According to them, countries that frequently abuse the Interpol system include: China, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Iran, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Tunisia. The 's report analysed 44 high-profile political cases which went through the Interpol system. A number of persons who have been granted refugee status in the (EU) and the US, including: Russian businessman , Chechen Arbi Bugaev, Kazakh opposition politician and his associate Artur Trofimov, and Sri Lankan journalist Chandima Withana continue to remain on the public Interpol list. Some of the refugees remain on the list of Interpol even after courts have refused to extradite them to a non-democratic state (for example, Pavel Zabelin, a witness in the case of , and Alexandr Pavlov, former security chief of the Kazakh oppositionist ). Interpol has recognized some requests to include persons on the wanted list as politically motivated, e.g., Indonesian activist , Georgian politician , ex-president of Georgia , and ex-president of Honduras ; these persons have been removed from the wanted list. However, in most cases, Interpol removes a Red Notice against refugees only after an state closes a criminal case or declares (for example, the cases of Russian activists and political refugees Petr Silaev, Denis Solopov, and Aleksey Makarov, as well as the Turkish sociologist and feminist ). The election of Meng Hongwei as president and , a Russian, as vice president of Interpol for Europe drew criticism in western media and raised fears of Interpol accepting politically motivated requests from China and Russia. Refugees who are included in the list of Interpol can be arrested when crossing the border. The procedure for filing an appeal with Interpol is a long and complex one. For example, the Venezuelan journalist and a colleague of Kazakh activist Ablyazov, and Tatiana Paraskevich, who were granted refugee status, sought to overturn the politically motivated request for as long as one and a half years, and six months, respectively. In 2013, Interpol was criticised over its multimillion-dollar deals with such private sector bodies as , , and the pharmaceutical industry. The criticism was mainly about the lack of transparency and potential conflicts of interest, such as . After the , the organization has severed ties with all the private-sector bodies that evoked such criticism, and has adopted a new and transparent financing framework. is under investigation for bribery and corruption.}} In 2016, criticised Interpol for turning down their application to join the General Assembly as an observer. The US supports Taiwan's participation, and the passed legislation directing the Secretary of State to develop a strategy to obtain observer status for Taiwan. According to a report by the that was issued on September 2017, Turkey has weaponized Interpol mechanisms to hunt down legitimate critics and opponents in violation of Interpol's own constitution. The report lists abuse cases where not only arrest warrants but also revocation of travel documents and passports were used by Turkey as . The harassment campaign targeted foreign companies as well. On 25 July 2014, despite Interpol's Constitution prohibiting them from undertaking any intervention or activities of a political or military nature, the Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary leader was placed on Interpol's international wanted list at the request of Russian authorities, which made him the only person wanted internationally after the beginning of the in 2014. For a long time, Interpol refused to place former on the wanted list as a suspect by the new for the mass killing of protesters during . Yanukovych was eventually placed on the wanted list on 12 January 2015. However, on 16 July 2015, after an intervention of Joseph Hage Aaronson, the British law firm hired by Yanukovych, the international arrest warrant against the former president of Ukraine was suspended pending further review. In December 2014, the (SBU) liquidated a sabotage and reconnaissance group that was led by a former agent of the Ukrainian Bureau of Interpol that also has family relations in the Ukrainian counter-intelligence agencies. In 2014, Russia made attempts to place Ukrainian politician and Ukrainian civic activist , subject to criminal persecution in Russia following his pro-Ukrainian art performance in Moscow, on the Interpol wanted list. After the disappearance of , four American senators accused his presumptive successor, , of abusing Red Notices and compared his election to "putting a fox in charge of the henhouse". A statement posted by the and signed by other NGO's raised concerns about his ability to use his Interpol position to silence Russia's critics. Russian politicians criticised the US political activity and called it interference: "This is interference in the election process of sorts, in the election to an international organisation. What else can you call it? This is a vivid example." Russian Presidential spokesman said. Reform From 1–3 July 2015, Interpol organized a session of the Working Group on the Processing of Information, which was formed specifically in order to verify the mechanisms of information processing. The Working Group heard the recommendations of civil society as regards the reform of the international investigation system and promised to take them into account, in light of possible obstruction or refusal to file crime reports nationally. The Open Dialog Foundation, a human rights organization, recommended that Interpol, in particular: create mechanism for the protection of rights of people having international refugee status; initiate closer cooperation of the Commission for the Control of Files with human rights NGOs and experts on asylum and extradition; enforce sanctions for violations of Interpol's rules; strengthen cooperation with NGOs, the UN, OSCE, the PACE, and the European Parliament. proposed to create effective remedies for individuals who are wanted under a Red Notice on unfair charges; to penalize nations which frequently abuse the Interpol system; to ensure more transparency of Interpol's work. The also created recommendations for Interpol, in particular to delete Red Notices and Diffusions for people who were granted refugee status according to issued by their countries of origin, and to establish an independent body to review Red Notices on a regular basis. Emblem The current emblem of Interpol was adopted in 1950 and includes the following elements: * the globe indicates worldwide activity * the olive branches represent peace * the sword represents police action * the scales signify justice *the acronyms "OIPC" and "ICPO", representing the full name of the organization in both English and French. Members Membership , with acceptance date as well as the corresponding representative entity of the nation are as follows: | Indonesia – June 1956| Iran – June 1956| Iraq – September 1967| Ireland – June 1956| Israel – June 1956| Italy – June 1956| Jamaica – August 1963| Japan – June 1956| Jordan – June 1956| Kazakhstan – November 1992| Kenya – October 1968| Kiribati – November 2018| Kuwait – June 1965| Kyrgyzstan – October 1996| Laos – June 1957| Lebanon – June 1956| Latvia – November 1992| Lesotho – September 1971| Liberia – June 1956| Libya – June 1956| Liechtenstein – October 1960| Lithuania – November 1991| Luxembourg – June 1956| Madagascar – September 1961| Malawi – August 1966| Malaysia – September 1961| Maldives – September 1984| Mali – October 1969| Malta – September 1972| Marshall Islands – September 1990| Mauritania – September 1962| Mauritius – October 1969| Mexico – June 1956| Republic of Moldova – September 1994| Monaco – June 1956| Mongolia – November 1991| Montenegro – September 2006| Morocco – June 1957| Mozambique – November 1989| Myanmar – June 1956| Namibia – November 1992| Nauru – September 1971| Nepal – September 1967| Netherlands – June 1956| New Zealand – June 1956| Nicaragua – June 1965| Niger – September 1964| Nigeria – October 1960| North Macedonia – September 1993| Norway – June 1956| Oman – September 1972| Pakistan – June 1956| Palestine – September 2017| Panama – September 1958| Papua New Guinea – October 1976| Paraguay – September 1977| Peru – September 1962| Philippines – June 1956| Poland – September 1990| Portugal – June 1956| Qatar – September 1974| Romania – October 1973| Russia – September 1990| Rwanda – September 1974| Saint Kitts and Nevis – November 1987| Saint Lucia – October 1983| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – October 1985| Samoa – October 2009| Sao Tome and Principe – November 1988| Saudi Arabia – June 1956| San Marino – September 2006| Senegal – September 1961| Serbia – September 1956| Seychelles – September 1977| Sierra Leone – September 1962| Singapore – October 1968| Sint Maarten – October 2011| Slovakia – September 1993| Slovenia – November 1992| Solomon Islands – September 2017|Somalia – October 1975| South Africa – September 1993| South Korea – September 1964| South Sudan – October 2011| Spain – June 1956| Sri Lanka – June 1956| Sudan – June 1956| Suriname – June 1956| Sweden – June 1956| Switzerland – June 1956| Syria – June 1956| Tajikistan – October 2004| Tanzania – September 1962| Thailand – June 1956| Togo – October 1960| Tonga – September 1979| Trinidad and Tobago – September 1964| Tunisia – June 1957| Turkey – June 1956| Turkmenistan – September 2005| Uganda – August 1966| Ukraine – November 1992| United Arab Emirates – October 1973| United Kingdom – June 1956| United States – June 1956| Uruguay – June 1956| Uzbekistan – September 1994| Vanuatu – November 2018| Vatican City – October 2008| Venezuela – June 1956| Vietnam – November 1991| Yemen – October 1976| Zambia – August 1966| Zimbabwe – November 1980 }} Sub-bureaus UN member states without membership * * * Partially recognized states and entities without membership or sub-bureau status }} Unrecognized states without membership or sub-bureau status Offices In addition to its General Secretariat headquarters in Lyon, Interpol maintains seven regional bureaus and three special representative offices: * , Argentina * , Belgium (special representative office to the ) * , Cameroon * , Côte d'Ivoire * , El Salvador * , Ethiopia (special representative office to the ) * , Kenya * , Thailand * , United States (special representative office to the ) in }} * , Zimbabwe Interpol's Command and Coordination Centres offer a 24-hour point of contact for national police forces seeking urgent information or facing a crisis. The original is in Lyon with a second in Buenos Aires added in September 2011. A third was opened in Singapore in September 2014. Interpol opened a Special Representative Office to the UN in New York City in 2004 and to the EU in Brussels in 2009. The organization has constructed the Interpol Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI) in Singapore to act as its facility, and a place of cooperation on digital crimes investigations. It was officially opened in April 2015, but had already become active beforehand. Most notably, a worldwide takedown of the SIMDA botnet infrastructure was coordinated and executed from IGCI's Cyber Fusion Centre in the weeks before the opening, as was revealed at the launch event. Secretaries-general and presidents Secretaries-general since organization's inception in 1923: Presidents since organization's inception in 1923: Notes References Category:Civilization